Building a Platform

You don't need a hammer and nails for this one. Robert Lee Brewer is helping writers build a platform for their marketing. He calls this the April Platform Challenge and it began on April 1 right here. I've been working on other projects, so just got into it today. Wow! I need lots of catching up to get up to speed. It's good to know I already have some of his recommendations in place. Now I'm checking everything out to see what I might have missed. Check it out--artists need this, too.

I survived

Well, that was fun--and different from anything I've done before. These Webinars have their own protocol for signing in, rehearsing, taking questions,and giving technical support. The whole thing on their end was nearly invisible to me. We had some trouble getting set up on Jennifer's laptop, so we used mine, and I felt comfortable with that. I thought it might feel really strange not to have an audience, but there were two people in the room and I hardly noticed them, I was so wrapped up in my talk. Their next program, in August, is on establishing an online presence for promoting your art, aka marketing. You'll be hearing about it from WetCanvas. I might like to attend that one, myself.

Ancient Wisdom:Emerging Artist: A Business Plan for the Mature Artist

Artist Sue Smith has written an awesome series of articles on art marketing on her Ancient Artist blog, Ancient Wisdom:Emerging Artist: A Business Plan for the Mature Artist. Bookmark this one. It's filled with inspirational ideas for jump-starting your creativity, as well as excellent plans for discovering your intentions and goals as an artist--at any age.

On mailing lists and art marketing

The Left Brain strikes again. On Saturday I described the three tasks I have to do and the order in which I expected to do them. My compulsive nature rose up and I began entering addresses into my Access database yesterday. I rationalized that the workshop shipment wouldn't go out until after Labor Day anyway, so it could wait another day. I convinced myself that the book outline is shaping up in my mind and will come pouring forth when it's ready (or on Tuesday, whichever comes first). So I typed and input, and input and typed, taking a break now and then to maintain my sanity. (Too late!)

But! I got all the records updated. I filed the stacks of addresses. I feel like a major cloud has passed that has been hanging over me for a long time. In fact, I don't even care if I use the database right away--just knowing it will be ready when I need it is a big relief. I didn't like struggling to gather addresses for the book-signing. Now it will be a piece of cake to sort a mailing list and print labels.

This seems like a ridiculous entry for an art and creativity blog, but the truth is that part of both is doing the marketing. Artists and writers who want to be successful must spend a significant part of their time spreading the word. One of my high-school teachers said, "You have to toot your own horn, because no one will do it for you." One artist on an art mailing list had been taught that she should let someone else toot her horn for her. You could wait a long time for someone else to do that. I've been observing artists on the Internet for over ten years now and the ones who are thriving are the ones who beep their own horns.

The Art of the Press Release

Years ago, when I was active in most of the area art orgs, I served on several boards as publicity chairman. Back then it was extremely difficult for a visual artist or local art group to get into the print media or on TV. It was partly because the arts editors back then had a bias toward the performing arts and didn't think local visual artists or groups had anything going for them. But also because the groups in question didn't do a very good job of PR. I helped to turn that around by working up a list of one hundred media outlets that covered the arts, including small weeklies from surrounding communities. I also established a press-release format to be used for all events. That seemed to help at the time. Now, our local papers are more involved in promoting visual arts, partly because of the interest of the editors themselves and partly because of the advocacy of the Dayton Visual Arts Center (DVAC).

My publisher has a PR person who was given my bio and information on The New Creative Artist. He told me he has an extensive media guide and there is a procedure for putting out publicity on a new book release. I have no idea what this means. So to be on the safe side, I decided to send out some publicity of my own regarding my book signing next Thursday, August 17. I reduced my original list to about forty newspapers and sent press releases on the signing, including a background of the book and a brief bio. I should have sent them out about a week sooner than I did, but couldn't get to it in time. Nevertheless, I'm hearing reports that notices are appearing here and there in the suburban and small-town papers. There was also a brief notice in the Dayton Daily News this morning. I targeted one arts writer in that paper with a more detailed package, but I haven't heard from her. The Shreveport artists have gotten more publicity than the author has in her own home town so far. Well, maybe there will be something over the weekend. Ya nevah know.

I'm getting excited about the event, working on a brief "audience participation" program that should be fun. Then I'll sign books and the artists will sign the pages their illustrations appear on. We did this with the original book and I frequently had students in my later workshops who treasured their books and took them to demos and workshops so artists in the book could add their signatures. So far, seventeen artists have said they'll be there and I expect a few more than that.

"Oh, Bother"

That's what Pooh Bear would say about my shenanigans this week. I allotted a certain amount of time to do promotion for my book signing, including mailing 140 postcard announcements to students and friends and about fifty press releases to area newspapers. I had it all worked out, cards designed, releases written and address labels printed. On Tuesday I mailed the postcards and this morning I mailed the media releases. When I got home from the post office today, I had a message in my voice mail: "Why does your postcard say the book-signing is July 17?" I don't know, why does it? Because I missed a typo. I must have read the stupid card twenty times. Now I know why they say we see what we expect to see. I saw "August 17" where it clearly said "July 17"--every time I looked at it. Oh, bother.

I quickly designed a correction notice and started printing it on 4-up postcards. Only this time the printer decided it didn't like the postcards. It took forever to get them printed. Oh, bother. But it only took a minute to print the labels. Fortunately I had saved the file I made for the first mailing. (Sing a song of bees & hunny.) I went to the post office late this afternoon, bought more stamps and mailed the correction notice.

I'm praying fervently that I didn't make any mistakes in the press releases. I'm afraid to look at the file. I sure wish I had taken my own advice, which is somewhere in my web site articles on marketing: Always have someone else proofread your copy.

Oh, bother.

To market, to market

Marketing art is such a big subject. I love the quote below from Pat Chapin, an artist I've known through a couple of art mailing lists for several years. Her point is so clearly stated: you have to be proactive if you want to sell your art. There are many different ways of doing this, and maybe I'll talk about them another day, but it really does begin with you and what you do to bring the customers to you. The Internet makes it appallingly obvious how many artists are out there competing for sales, but it's less obvious how many customers there are and what they're buying. Another artist I met in my early days on the Web has risen to the challenge and is doing a good job marketing and selling her oils and acrylics. She now has five videos, a couple of books, a newsletter and lots of studio and plein air paintings moving quickly out of her web site and into people's homes. She teaches workshops, gives demos, exhibits in shows and conducts her art business in a professional manner. You need a plan and "ya gotta have art" if you want to succeed.